Lullabye for a Stormy Night
by prettylittlefanfic
Summary: Nothing brings a family together like a thunder storm. The Cavanaughs are no exception to this rule. AU, one shot.


Spencer looked up from the law document that had been taking up all of her brain capacity for the past hour, and glanced out thewindow for a brief moment. It had been cloudy and rainy all day, but the precipitation had just recently increased from a misty drizzle, to pelting showers. Spencer stretched her arms out and yawned, it was her third night in a row being awake past midnight due to all the paperwork she was being bogged down with at the firm.

The fact that her husband Toby had been away on a buisness trip hadn't helped either. As much as Spencer adored her three year old daughter Chloe, she had to admit that the miniature curly haired, doe eyed cutie was a lot of work. Especially for a temporarily single/hard working lawyer Mom. The past two and a half days without her husband around, had been difficult to say the least.

Spencer jumped when she heard a sharp crack of thunder ripple through her eardrums, followed by a flash of lightning that brought a millisecond of light to the otherwise black sky. Spencer shuddered. She really wished Toby were here right now. Spencer could remember a night back in high school, when she was sleeping over Toby's loft during a storm similar to this one. All Spencer had to do was show the slightest from of worry over the crashing thunder, for Toby to pull her into his arms and rock her to sleep.

Spencer sighed at the sight of their lonely bed room, and listened as the storm continued outside. Spencer suddenly cursed herself for becoming so distracted from her studies, she was only on page seven of this legal document and had at least ten more pages to go. Just as she was diverting her attention back to the tedious files in front of her, Spencer's focus was once again directed elsewhere. Her brow furrowed in worry as she heard a soft whimpering comming from the room down the hall. Spencer put down her pencil and headed towards the source of noise. Her hunt, lead her to her frightened three year old's bedroom.

"Aww Chlo it's okay, Mommy's here" Spencer soothed her crying baby who's body was burried under covers. Her comforting voice comming out as melodic as a piano chord.

"Why is the sky making all those crashes?" Chloe pouted. She was using her little hands to block her ears as salty tears dripped down her cheeks.

Spencer gave her daughter a sad smile as she sat down on the edge of the twin sized bed, and conteplated how she was going to explain meteorology to a three year old.

"Well honey, thunderstorms form when an air mass becomes so unstable that it overturns violently. The air at the lowest layers-" Spencer began before she was interupted by a clearly confused Chole.

"It kinda sounds like dinosaurs stomping around on the roof" Chloe giggled, as she sniffled her nose and whiped away an oncoming round of tears.

"Yeah I guess it does, but those sounds you hear are called thunder. Thunder is the product of rapidly expanding air." Spencer continued to pull facts out of her head that she vaguely remebered from eigth grade biology. However Chloe was unimpressed.

"No Mommy! That can't be right, Air doesn't make noise." The little lawyer in the making argued.

Spencer smiled and layed herself down on the bed next to her daughted. She finally decided to accept the fact that her three year old was not interested in her logic.

"Oh really? I'm wrong?" Spencer smiled, playing along to her little girl's game. "So what do you think is causing all that noise?"

Chloe sat up a little, eager to explain her reason for the racket that had been preventing her from sleeping. "remember that time you and Daddy brought me to that bowling ally?"

"Yes"

"Well, I know for a fact that those loud crashing noises, are just the people in heaven bowling." Chloe stated, she was clearly proud of her theory.

"Ooo ooo and that bright flash that happens right about... now-" Chloe pointed enthusiastically towards the window as a lightning bolt coincidentally sparked the earth's surface.

"That is just the lights that flash in the bowling ally after you score a point."

"You know what, I think you are right Chloe" Spencer nodded her head, enjoying her child's vivid imagination.

"Or remeber when the people next door smashed down their old house so they could make a new one? I bet they have to make a bunches of new houses in heaven, so maybe that's whats making all the noise" Chloe theorized as she layed down on the bed beside her Mother.

"Thats possible. Or maybe they have a band playing up there, one with lots of flashing lights and loud drums?" Spencer pitched in to Chloe's fun.

Despite what Spencer had read in almost every parenting magazine or article about "preserving your child's innocence", Spencer had always vowed to never lie to her kids. She had grown up in a house where Santa clause and the easter bunny were just silly myths.

But in this moment, as she listened to her three year old babble on about her definition of thunder and lightning. She realised that her three year old didn't need a textbook or researched evidence, she had her whole life to write papers and study. She didn't need to be logical and mathematal right now. Spencer finaly realised why a child's innocence is so precious and why parents try so hard to preserve it.

"-and I bet its just new years eve in heaven and they are dropping the ball, don't you think Mommy?" "Mommy?" Chloe asked again when she realised that her Mother's eyes were closed and she had fallen asleep.

"Nighty night Mommy" Chloe whispered as she snuggled against her mommy's warm figure and wrapped the blanket around the two of them.

Toby handed a wrinkled twenty dollar bill to his scruffy looking cab driver as he opened the taxi's backseat door, and pulled his suitcase out with him. It felt so good to be home. he had already had such a horrible day already, after his five p.m flight got delayed four hours due to unfit weather conditions. What should have been a nine o'clock arrival, turned into a grueling 1:30 a.m. Toby quietly opened the front door to his dark house, he removed his soggy boots and jacket, sighing at the trail of puddles that he would have to clean in the morning. Deciding that he was too tired to deal with his suitcase and wet clothes, Toby dropped them to the floor and headed up to his bedroom.

Toby was caught off guard when he entered the master bedroom to find no trace of his wife Spencer. A flash of panic veered through his system as he veered himself out of the room a down the hallway. He checked the bathroom, to find it empty as well.

Toby sighed a sigh of relief as he walked into his three year old daughter's bedoom to find both Chloe and Spencer cuddled up fadt asleep on the twin sized bed. Toby smiled as he took in the beautiful sight, it was enough to compensate for his horrible day.

Toby walked over to the edge of the bed and wrapped the blanket around them a little snugger, knowing that Spencer's poor circulation had been passed down to their daughter. He then placed a kiss on both of their cheeks. Athough he could watch them sleep all day, tucked under those barbie princess covers, Toby couldn't wait for them to wake up so her could surprise them with his two day early arrival.

**_Hey guys, what did you think of this oneshot? Plleeeaaasee leave a review (:_**

**_Also, For everyone wondering about my other story, pinch and purge (because I know I kind of let ya'll hanging there), I have decided to update! I just thought I would write a this quick one shot, because sometimes when u have writers block, writing other stories helps spark my inspiration. So stay tuned for that, and thanks for reading. Have a nice weekend everyone_**!


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